Inside H-P's Missed Chance to Avoid a Disastrous Deal

By

Ben Worthen and

Justin Scheck

Jan. 21, 2013 10:32 p.m. ET

Days before Hewlett-Packard Co. dived into an $11 billion software deal it almost instantly regretted, it missed a chance to back away.

During a call with an H-P delegation, outside auditors for British software maker Autonomy Corp. mentioned that an executive there had raised an allegation of improper accounting at the firm, according to...